Amritsar: To develop IIM as centre of excellence for agriculture entrepreneurship if voted to power, says SAD candidate

Amritsar, April 30

A city-based NGO — Shiksha — organised a meeting during which the history of the establishment of the IIM was traced by its office- bearers here today. They mentioned the special contribution of the then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, and Anil Joshi, then Local Government Minister, Punjab Government, in setting up the institution.

Addressing the participants on the occasion, SAD Lok Sabha candidate Anil Joshi recalled the efforts made to establish the institute. He said in previous seven to eight years there was a lack of co-ordination between the Centre and the state governments due to which the institute failed to fulfil its objectives.

Joshi said if voted to power, he will go all out to develop the IIM as a centre of excellence for agricultural entrepreneurship, which would open new gateways for research in crop diversification, marketing and various other related fields, keeping in view that Punjab was an agrarian state.

On behalf of Amritsar Vikas Manch (AVM), its office-bearers — Dr Charanjit Singh Gumtala, Manmohan Singh Brar and Principal Kulwant Singh Ankhi — also attended the meeting. They said any political leader who helped in establishing a Central project in Amritsar deserved the rightful credit. They also handed over a demand letter to Anil Joshi on the occasion.

AVM office-bearers said they had already submitted demand letters to Aam Aadmi Party candidate Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Congress nominee Gurjeet Singh Aujla and BJP aspirant Taranjit Singh Sandhu. They said their NGO was a non-political organisation. Among others, Dr Sanjeev Sharma, Lalit Bhalla and Ramesh Rampal attended the meeting.